From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has inaugurated an ad-hoc committee on the establishment of central multipurpose laboratories in select universities in the country.
Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, who inaugurated the committee in Abuja, on Monday, said the move was part of efforts to provide relevant infrastructures to aid research in the country.
He said: “It is universally accepted that innovative research and its commercialization is clearly the driver of economic growth and prosperity in the contemporary world.
“Thus, it is imperative to make conscious efforts to not only develop our human capital but to also provide research infrastructure to support innovative research and development on a sustainable basis. It is indeed a key pre-requisite for accelerated national development and global competitiveness.”
Speaking further, the TETFund boss said the agency is deploying billions of naira to fund research programmes and projects with a view to deepen the institutionalization of research and development to tackle national challenges.
He recalled that the Fund has so far awarded a total of 727 research grants to researchers from public tertiary institutions at the cost of over N18 billion under the National Research Fund (NRF) to undertake applied research in various academic disciplines.
He also observed that some of the scholars who have benefited from the NRF grants have often requested that, completing the execution of the research projects may require them to cross international borders to access certain facilities/equipment due to lack of requisite research facilities in their institutions.
“In some cases, these tend to affect the financial burden associated with the research projects, coupled with time expended for travelling,” Echono said.
The Executive Secretary also recalled how TETFund provided resources to support groundbreaking research in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how deficit in laboratory infrastructure posed a major challenge to researchers.
He explained: “TETFund in 2020 through the special research grant to address COVID-19 funded eight research projects at a total cost of N260 million to support the Federal Government’s response.
“Again, the final report submitted by Nigerian Academy of Science indicated a glaring lack of facilities/equipment to conduct such study in some of the sites visited and a serious deficit in essential laboratory infrastructure needed to produce viable research outcomes.”
Meanwhile, Echono said the ad-hoc committee which has former Vice Chancellor of University of Ibadan, Emeritus Prof. Olufemi Bamiro, as chairman, has one month to submit its report.
In his acceptance speech, Bamiro, who commended Echono for setting up the committee, expressed the readiness of the team to deliver on the assigned task.
“This will surely go a long way in rejuvenating research and training in research in our nation state. I commend the composition of the Committee to ensure the implementation of the assignment in line with the stipulated Terms of Reference.
“The Committee, like the assignment, is multidisciplinary in nature, with experts in the areas of food science and technology, energy, engineering, parasitology, medicine, biochemistry, nuclear physics, and architecture. I do not see any critical area of research endeavour that can escape the eagle eyes of the members.”
Aside Prof. Bamiro, other members of the committee are Prof. Ekanem Braide, Prof. Joseph Ahaneku, Prof. Suleiman Mustapha, Prof. Yusuf Saidu, Prof. Nasir Isa Fagge, Prof. Abubakar S. Sambo, Prof. Ibrahim Katampe and Mallam Buhari Mikailu.